Best films of 2009

Last week I submitted a top ten for the Sydney Film Critics poll conducted by Matt Ravier, published here at his blog, along with a few miscellaneous personal highlights and lowlights as an Aussie cinephile. Here's the annotated version of my list, with a few blurbs and links to reviews where applicable.

TOP TEN AUSTRALIAN THEATRICAL PREMIERES:

1. A Serious Man (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, USA)

There’s a lot to admire in principle about the Coens’ latest. It’s their most baldly existential film to date, it stars a cast of no-name theatre actors as opposed to bankable stars, it’s set in a milieu rarely seen in cinema (60's midwestern Jewish suburbia; where the bros' were raised), and it features an open-ending that makes No Country For Old Men’s look positively conventional. All the hallmarks of an uncompromising, uncommercial cinema, then. But it’s the particulars that really stick in the mind, from its perfectly judged moments of pathos (the poolside scene ranks alongside the legendary “look into your heart” scene from Miller’s Crossing), Michael Stulhbarg’s exquisitely detailed and phenomenally empathetic lead performance, and a spine-tingling stretch that scores Hendrix’s “Machine Gun” to a rabbi’s anecdote of a dentist finding mysterious Hebrew engravings in the back of a gentile patient’s teeth. The formal brilliance we’ve come to expect from the Coens is here in spades, but it’s the probing discussion of What It All Means that makes A Serious Man a revelation.

2. Accident (Pou-soi Cheang, Hong Kong)

3. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, Sweden)

A masterclass in economic, image-driven storytelling, and the most emotionally charged vampire film since George Romero’s Martin. Still not quite as scary as the thought of what the forthcoming Hollywood remake is going to be like.

4. The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch, USA)

Shamelessly opaque, pretentious & masturbatory? Filled with far too many cute meta-moments? Maybe, but I couldn’t care less, hypnotised as I was by Jarmusch’s immaculate, uhh, control of images (Christopher Doyle should shoot EVERY movie) and music (Boris should score EVERY movie). And really, that’s exactly what the film is a paean to; the pleasures of pure cinema, untainted by the artifice of plot contrivance. Just thinking about it almost makes me wanna walk into the nearest café, and lecture a stranger about narrative being a capitalist construct. Almost.

5. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, USA)

Christoph Waltz blah blah blah Not your daddy’s WW2 movie blah blah blah anachronism blah blah blah postmoderism blah blah blah revisionism blah blah blah foot fetishism blah blah blah blah blah blah marry me Melanie Laurent blah blah blah etc etc etc.

6. Two Lovers (James Gray, USA)

James Gray re-confirms himself as contemporary Hollywood’s answer to Nicholas Ray (no wonder he’s idolized in France more than anywhere else), bringing emotional urgency to his third film in a row to feature Joaquin Phoenix (doing career-best work) as a Brooklyn boy who can't escape his family-designated destiny, with the most depressing ‘happy’ ending since Ray’s Bigger Than Life.

7. Three Blind Mice (Matthew Newton, Australia)

That actor Matthew Newton’s freewheeling, energetic and wholly entertaining debut as writer/director – for my money, the strongest Aussie film in a strong year for Aussie films – failed to find the audience it deserved, was one of last year’s gravest cinematic injustices. Terrific performances, endlessly likeable, and captures Sydney’s nightlife better than any other film I can think of. Positively begging to find a following on DVD.

8. Adventureland (Greg Mottola, USA)

The cinematic equivalent of the Replacements’ albums Tim (whose songs feature heavily in the soundtrack), only without the duff tracks. A funny, sincere and poignant film about growing up in 1987, that’s both specific to it’s era and any era.

9. The Box (Richard Kelly, USA)

Following the calculated cult trainwreck that was Southland Tales, Richard Kelly bites off more than he can chew again, but this time the result is a sci-fi thriller that does a better job at capturing the primal storytelling and kitschy/portentous atmosphere of vintage Twilight Zone better than any other film I can think of. The best kind of mess; resulting from an overdose of ideas and a reckless willingness to risk being risible, in pursuit of the sublime.

10. Of Time and the City (Terence Davies, UK)

Get past the pomposity of Davies’ narration, and you’ll find a highly effective combination of reverie and history in this maverick filmmaker’s first documentary about life as a Liverpudlian. Scathing, funny, and moving stuff.

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BEST UNRELEASED FILMS

 

1. Everyone Else (Maren Ade, Germany)

It's a seemingly slight subject on paper - the perils of doggedly basing your relationships on superficial unconventionalities of behaviour and interaction - but the genius of Maren Ade's screenplay lies in its incisive specificity. It's for this reason that the film doesn't feel Rohmer-esque or Woody Allen-esque or anything-esque, but rather zeroes in on an aspect of human connection that feels fresh to cinematic representation. In fact, saying it's about the 'perils' of a certain kind of behaviour sounds hopelessly reductive. More generally, it's about the difficulties for two people to establish a solid basis or language for their connection, and in turns asks whether a successful relationship needs - or can survive - this sort of reflection. Ade doesn't have her actors conform to a thesis, however; the ever-shifting themes and ideas of the film are conveyed through even their slightest gestures as much as the writing.

2. Dogtooth (Giorgos Lanthimos, Greece)
3. Love Exposure (Shion Sono, Japan)
4. 35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis, France)
5. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Austria / Germany)
6. Jerichow (Christian Petzold, Germany)
7. Julia (Eric Zonka, France)
8. Face (Tsai Ming-Liang, Taiwan / France)
9. Katalin Varga (Peter Strickland, Romania / UK)
10. Martyrs (Pascal Laugier, France / Canada)

PS: Happy new year y'all!